Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. Lowers Stock Holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. trimmed its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 10.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 14,935 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 1,733 shares during the period. Roman Butler Fullerton & Co.’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $591,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Mraz Amerine & Associates Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 5.9% during the fourth quarter. Mraz Amerine & Associates Inc. now owns 58,791 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $2,503,000 after purchasing an additional 3,294 shares during the last quarter. Alpha Omega Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Freeport-McMoRan in the 4th quarter worth approximately $200,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. purchased a new position in Freeport-McMoRan in the 4th quarter worth approximately $174,000. Guidance Capital Inc. raised its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 15.5% in the 4th quarter. Guidance Capital Inc. now owns 13,544 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $570,000 after acquiring an additional 1,815 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quantum Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. Quantum Private Wealth LLC now owns 21,360 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $909,000 after acquiring an additional 1,900 shares during the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FCX has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $59.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $43.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $41.00 to $48.50 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $47.54.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Shares of FCX stock traded up $0.59 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $50.41. 3,602,085 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 13,560,813. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 12 month low of $32.83 and a 12 month high of $52.42. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $43.08 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $39.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a current ratio of 2.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $72.31 billion, a PE ratio of 39.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 2.04.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 24th. The natural resource company reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.04. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 8.09% and a return on equity of 8.41%. The firm had revenue of $5.91 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.52 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 12th. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is 23.62%.

Freeport-McMoRan Profile

Freeport-McMoRan Inc engages in the mining of mineral properties in North America, South America, and Indonesia. It primarily explores for copper, gold, molybdenum, silver, and other metals. The company's assets include the Grasberg minerals district in Indonesia; Morenci, Bagdad, Safford, Sierrita, and Miami in Arizona; Chino and Tyrone in New Mexico; and Henderson and Climax in Colorado, North America, as well as Cerro Verde in Peru and El Abra in Chile.